Professor Julian May (Co-PI: Power and Governance)

UWC-based Professor Julian May is the director of the DSTI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security (CoE-FS) and holds the UNESCO Chair in African Food Systems. His current research focuses on food security, childhood deprivation and malnutrition.

Professor Marc Wegerif (Co-PI: Power and Governance)

Qualifications
PhD (Rural Sociology), Wageningen University
MA (Land and Agrarian Studies), University of the Western Cape
Academic Profile
I have worked on development and human rights issues in a range of organisations for about 30 years, with food systems, economic justice, and agrarian reform being a focus for me over the last 20 years. Before taking up my current position as a Senior Lecturer and Development Studies Programme Coordinator, I was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Human Economy Programme, University of Pretoria, doing research on food systems and land rights.
Current Research Project(s)
Current research interests are focused on the symbiotic and non-corporate means of production and distribution of food that exist in Southern Africa with a focus on Tanzania and South Africa. This includes studying food markets and exploring what can be learnt from people’s everyday practices for the achievement of the right to food and a more human economy. I am part of the Management Committee of the DSI-NRF CoE Food Security and lead the project on Urban Food Systems supported by the CoE.
Course involvement
I lecture on and coordinate the BSocSciHons in Development Studies. This programme offers an advanced cross-disciplinary study of development processes – history of the field of study, epistemological questions of theory, research methods, and the empirical contemporary world of development practice. I also supervise Masters and PhD Development Studies students.
Orcid ID
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1476-0353

Professor Naushad Emmambux (Co-PI: Innovation and Technology)

Professor Naushad Emmambux is based at UP’s Department of Consumer and Food Science.

His research applies food chemistry, cereal science and technology, food rheology, microscopy and nanotechnology to tackling malnutrition and diet-related non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.

Professor Ndiko Ludidi (Co-PI: Innovation and Technology)

Professor Ndomelele Ndiko Ludidi is the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Sciences (FANS) at the University of Mpumalanga (UMP) with effect from 1 January 2024 and is an Extraordinary Professor in the Department of Biotechnology at the University of the Western Cape (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2027). He served as a Professor of Biotechnology at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa before joining UMP. He is an established researcher (NRF rating of C2, until Dec. 2025) with expertise in plant molecular biology, plant physiology and biochemistry. He has extensive university-level teaching experience in biochemistry, plant biotechnology and plant physiology.

Professor Takalani Mulaudzi-Masuku (Co-PI: Innovation and Technology)

Professor Lise Korsten (Co-PI: Nutrition, Health and Safety)

Professor Lise Korsten is the co-director of the DSTI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security (CoE-FS), and the president of the African Academy of Science. Professor Korsten is based at the University of Pretoria, in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. Her research focuses on complementary fields of postharvest technology and food safety related to international trade in fresh produce requirements.

Latest publications:

  • “Profiling bacterial communities of irrigation water and leafy green vegetables produced by small-scale farms and sold in informal settlements in South Africa”,
  • “Spatial diarrheal disease risks and antibiogram diversity of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli in selected access points of the Buffalo River, South Africa”, PLOS ONE. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288809
  • “Microbiological quality assessment of fresh produce: Potential health risk to children and urgent need for improved food safety in school feeding schemes”, Food Science & Nutrition. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/fsn3.3506.

Professor Rina Swart (Co-PI: Nutrition, Health and Safety)

UWC’s Professor Rina Swart is a registered dietician as well as a registered nutritionist with the HPCSA. Her research focuses on the prevention of malnutrition through nutrition programmes.

Professor Clement Nyirenda (PI: UKUDLA)

Professor Stephen Devereux (SARChI: Social Protection)

Professor Stephen Devereux is a development economist working on food security, famine, rural livelihoods, social protection and poverty reduction issues. His research experience has been mainly in eastern and southern Africa. He works at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK, where he is co-director of the Centre for Social Protection. He holds the NRF Research Chair in Social Protection for Food Security, affiliated with the DSI–NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security (CoE-FS) and the Institute for Social Development at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.